c++ 17解决方案(这将工作于std::string和std::wstring):

分配一个缓冲区，格式化它，然后复制到另一个字符串是不高效的。可以创建格式化字符串大小的std::string，并直接格式化到字符串缓冲区中:

#include <string>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <cwchar>
#include <cstdio>
#include <type_traits>

template<typename T, typename ... Args>
std::basic_string<T> string_format(T const* const format, Args ... args)
{
    int size_signed{ 0 };

    // 1) Determine size with error handling:    
    if constexpr (std::is_same_v<T, char>) { // C++17
        size_signed = std::snprintf(nullptr, 0, format, args ...);
    }
    else {
        size_signed = std::swprintf(nullptr, 0, format, args ...);
    }  
    if (size_signed <= 0) {
        throw std::runtime_error("error during formatting.");
    }
    const auto size = static_cast<size_t>(size_signed);

    // 2) Prepare formatted string:
    std::basic_string<T> formatted(size, T{});
    if constexpr (std::is_same_v<T, char>) { // C++17
        std::snprintf(formatted.data(), size + 1, format, args ...); // +1 for the '\0' (it will not be part of formatted).
    }
    else {
        std::swprintf(formatted.data(), size + 1, format, args ...); // +1 for the '\0' (it will not be part of formatted).
    }

    return formatted; // Named Return Value Optimization (NRVO), avoids an unnecessary copy. 
}

此外:通常，format参数是char[] / wchar_t[] &创建std::string对象效率不高。传递char*或wchar_t* &如果你已经有一个std::string对象，你仍然可以使用它作为your_string.c_str()。例子:

int main()
{
    int i{ 0 };

    // The format parameter is a char[] / wchar_t[]:

    const std::string title1 = string_format("story[%d].", ++i); // => "story[1]"

    const std::wstring title2 = string_format(L"story[%d].", ++i); // => L"story[2]"

    // If you already have a std::string object:

    const std::string format1{ "story[%d]." };
    const std::string title3 = string_format(format1.c_str(), ++i); // => "story[3]"

    const std::wstring format2{ L"story[%d]." };
    const std::wstring title4 = string_format(format2.c_str(), ++i); // => L"story[4]"  
}

从Dacav和pixelpoint的答案中获得灵感。我玩了一下，得到了这个:

#include <cstdarg>
#include <cstdio>
#include <string>

std::string format(const char* fmt, ...)
{
    va_list vl;

    va_start(vl, fmt);
    int size = vsnprintf(0, 0, fmt, vl) + sizeof('\0');
    va_end(vl);

    char buffer[size];

    va_start(vl, fmt);
    size = vsnprintf(buffer, size, fmt, vl);
    va_end(vl);

    return std::string(buffer, size);
}

通过合理的编程实践，我相信代码应该足够了，但是我仍然对更安全的替代方案持开放态度，这些替代方案仍然足够简单，不需要c++ 11。

下面是另一个版本，它使用初始缓冲区来防止在初始缓冲区已经足够多时再次调用vsnprintf()。

std::string format(const char* fmt, ...)
{

    va_list vl;
    int size;

    enum { INITIAL_BUFFER_SIZE = 512 };

    {
        char buffer[INITIAL_BUFFER_SIZE];

        va_start(vl, fmt);
        size = vsnprintf(buffer, INITIAL_BUFFER_SIZE, fmt, vl);
        va_end(vl);

        if (size < INITIAL_BUFFER_SIZE)
            return std::string(buffer, size);
    }

    size += sizeof('\0');

    char buffer[size];

    va_start(vl, fmt);
    size = vsnprintf(buffer, size, fmt, vl);
    va_end(vl);

    return std::string(buffer, size);
}

(事实证明，这个版本与Piti Ongmongkolkul的答案相似，只是它没有使用new和delete[]，并且在创建std::string时指定了大小。

The idea here of not using new and delete[] is to imply usage of the stack over the heap since it doesn't need to call allocation and deallocation functions, however if not properly used, it could be dangerous to buffer overflows in some (perhaps old, or perhaps just vulnerable) systems. If this is a concern, I highly suggest using new and delete[] instead. Note that the only concern here is about the allocations as vsnprintf() is already called with limits, so specifying a limit based on the size allocated on the second buffer would also prevent those.)

Poco Foundation库有一个非常方便的格式函数，它在格式字符串和值中都支持std::string:

道格:http://pocoproject.org/docs/Poco.html # 7308 来源:https://github.com/pocoproject/poco/blob/develop/Foundation/src/Format.cpp

下面是@iFreilicht答案的稍微修改版本，更新到c++ 14(使用make_unique函数而不是原始声明)，并增加了对std::string参数的支持(基于Kenny Kerr的文章)

#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
#include <string>
#include <cstdio>

template <typename T>
T process_arg(T value) noexcept
{
    return value;
}

template <typename T>
T const * process_arg(std::basic_string<T> const & value) noexcept
{
    return value.c_str();
}

template<typename ... Args>
std::string string_format(const std::string& format, Args const & ... args)
{
    const auto fmt = format.c_str();
    const size_t size = std::snprintf(nullptr, 0, fmt, process_arg(args) ...) + 1;
    auto buf = std::make_unique<char[]>(size);
    std::snprintf(buf.get(), size, fmt, process_arg(args) ...);
    auto res = std::string(buf.get(), buf.get() + size - 1);
    return res;
}

int main()
{
    int i = 3;
    float f = 5.f;
    char* s0 = "hello";
    std::string s1 = "world";
    std::cout << string_format("i=%d, f=%f, s=%s %s", i, f, s0, s1) << "\n";
}

输出:

i = 3, f = 5.000000, s = hello world

如果需要，可以随意将这个答案与原始答案合并。

你不能直接这样做，因为你没有对底层缓冲区的写访问权(直到c++ 11;见Dietrich Epp的评论)。你必须先在c-string中执行，然后将其复制到std::string中:

  char buff[100];
  snprintf(buff, sizeof(buff), "%s", "Hello");
  std::string buffAsStdStr = buff;

但我不确定为什么不直接使用字符串流?我想你有特定的理由不这么做:

  std::ostringstream stringStream;
  stringStream << "Hello";
  std::string copyOfStr = stringStream.str();

Boost::format()提供了你想要的功能:

Boost格式库简介如下:

format对象由format-string构造，然后通过反复调用运算符%来给出参数。 然后，每个参数都被转换为字符串，这些字符串又根据format-string组合成一个字符串。

#include <boost/format.hpp>

cout << boost::format("writing %1%,  x=%2% : %3%-th try") % "toto" % 40.23 % 50; 
// prints "writing toto,  x=40.230 : 50-th try"